The King's Lover-Chapter 417: Questions

After making her request to go see Lady Delphine, Caius asked that they play a game of chess, and Rose had been too excited to decline. Knowing she would be able to see Lady Delphine was enough to put her in a good mood for the rest of the night.

The Crown Prince, however, seemed a little too quiet. He didn’t even tease her about his first win. By the second game, Rose was unable to take the silence anymore.

"Did something happen?" Her lips moved before she could control them.

Caius raised his head from the board to look at her sitting next to him. He squinted his eyes as he stared, and Rose immediately felt self-conscious. Was there something wrong with the question she asked?

His eyes relaxed, and he asked, "Why?"

Rose locked her eyes with the game board, reminding herself never to be impulsive toward the Crown Prince. She didn’t particularly care if something was wrong; his mood was just ruining hers.

"Y-you seem distracted," she replied, moving her piece.

They sat side by side with the chessboard and its pieces on the same table where he tutored her. Stacks of paper and ink had been moved to the side to make room.

Caius leaned back, still looking at her but his eyes trailed downwards. "You’re not wrong."

Rose jerked her head in his direction, aghast at his blatant statement. She couldn’t exactly cover herself—this was her nightgown.

Caius chuckled. "You don’t have to look at me like that," he replied. "Remember the council meeting I was supposed to have today?"

Rose frowned and nodded. Was he about to tell her the details of the meeting? Wasn’t that supposed to be confidential?

"The lords, for some reason, want a war. For such a silly reason too." He scratched his beard and sighed.

"Isn’t war bad? Why would anyone want to go to war?"

"Exactly," he said with a smile. "They want to go to war simply to make themselves feel better. But that’s not the worst part."

"What is?" Rose asked, realizing she actually wanted to know.

"They intend to go to war against the wrong kingdom."

"The wrong kingdom? Why would they make such a mistake?" she asked.

"Well, because the culprit is pretty good at hiding their tracks. Right now we have a known alliance, and there is no reason for them to be hostile to us. Galdoris, on the other hand, has a history of attacking us. They attacked Redhill without reason, and I had to fight to get it back. They’ve always disputed us since Grandmother married Grandfather."

Wait one moment! Should I be hearing this?

"Why would they have a problem with that?"

Why am I asking more questions?

But it felt rude not to, and this was better than the silence.

"You didn’t know?" he asked and peered at her face while making his move.

Rose’s eyes widened, and she tried to think of a counterattack. Her queen was at risk, but if she moved it, her king would be in danger. She would have to sacrifice her last knight because if the Crown Prince took her queen, she would lose instantly.

Caius didn’t say anything as she struggled to think of a countermove. She sighed as she made a move, capturing the threat to her queen, and Caius immediately captured her knight.

Rose touched her temples. Even when he was distracted, she still couldn’t beat him. She knew now she was going to lose this game. This wasn’t a shock, but she had hoped she would at least come close to winning. How was she not better than him after so long?

"What don’t I know?" Rose asked. She was the one who needed something to distract herself, or she might toss all the pieces to the ground in anger.

It was brief, but a smile slipped out from his stoic expression. "My grandmother was half Galdoris."

This had Rose’s attention, and she turned her head to him. This was not public knowledge. Rose barely knew anything about the late Queen Catherine except her love for whales which she only just found out. Former Queen Catherine Ravenor was dead way before she was born.

"Did they not approve of the marriage?"

"They did not. They wanted her to marry King Vodnik for a lot of political reasons, and it didn’t help that at the time she was the only female directly connected to the late King of Galdoris. They wanted an alliance with Wresthal. Grandmother wasn’t interested in her family’s politics, and she married Grandfather."

"That’s when the discord began?" Rose asked.

"Yes," Caius replied. "Galdoris did get an alliance with Wresthal, and Grandfather tried to make amends after Grandmother’s death. Things were pretty quiet for almost two decades, until I returned to Velmount and then Redhill was attacked."

"Why are they attacking now?"

Caius traced his scar, and he looked as though he might not tell her. "The King is deathly ill. There isn’t a better time to try to get back at us."

"For something that happened two generations ago."

Caius laughed. "When you put it like that. However, they made a promise to Grandfather for the King’s sake. If the king is dying, they have no reason to keep their promise anymore."

Rose didn’t miss that Caius only referred to his father as "the King." She knew he called him Father, even though he rarely spoke about him. She knew things between the King and his son were strained, and this was the King’s fault and it was pretty clear the things his father did to him were not something he could easily forgive.

Rose couldn’t imagine being at odds with her father. She had never even fought with him—well, none that she could remember—and if her father was dying, she wouldn’t be able to speak of it so casually.

"I win," he announced.

"What? How?" Rose snapped out of her thoughts. Her mouth fell open; she hadn’t realized she was that close to a loss.

Caius laughed and stood up. "Shall we call it a night?" he asked.

Rose stood up without hesitation and stretched out her hands. She felt stiff and was still slightly annoyed by the fact that she lost, but the influx of information was enough to dampen that and she found that she also wanted to hear the rest of the tale.